Joe Haering

Joseph Haering was born on February 1, 1946, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.^[1] He played high school football at Central Catholic High School in Pittsburgh as a quarterback.^[2]

Haering played college football for the Bucknell Bison as a linebacker, and earned all-conference honors.^[2] After graduating from Bucknell, he served in the United States Army as a first lieutenant and company commander during the Vietnam War.^[2]

Haering began his coaching career as a linebacker coach at Bucknell.^[2] He spent the next ten years at the collegiate level, with assistant coaching stops at Kentucky, Boston University, and Kent State.^[2]

Haering began his professional football coaching career in 1978 with the New York Jets, serving as linebackers/special teams coach during the 1978 season.^[3] He was solely linebackers coach for the Jets in 1979.^[3]

In 1980, Haering was the offensive line/offensive backfield coach for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League.^[1] He then served as a coach for all three seasons of the United States Football League; he was the Chicago Blitz' linebackers coach in 1983, the Pittsburgh Maulers' defensive coordinator/linebackers coach in 1984, and the Denver Gold's defensive coordinator in 1985.^[1]

In 1987, Haering was one of four head coaches for the inaugural season of the Arena Football League (AFL). He served as the head coach of the AFL's Pittsburgh Gladiators from 1987 to 1990.^[4] He was suspended indefinitely after "slugging" AFL president Jim Foster during a benches-clearing brawl on July 22, 1989, against the Chicago Bruisers.^[5] The brawl started after Bruisers quarterback Ben Bennett hit a Gladiators player from behind.^[5] The referees ruled that Bennett and another Gladiators player had been ejected from the game.^[6] However, Foster intervened and said that Bennett should stay in the game because the fans wanted to see him play.^[6] Haering then threatened to withdraw his entire team from the game in protest.^[6] Foster ran onto the field and Haering "decked him with one punch", stating "I felt threatened and would do what any guy from East Pittsburgh would do".^[6] Foster later said the hit was a cheap shot.^[6] Haering ended up missing two games but was reinstated from suspension in time for the playoffs.^[7] However, interim head coach Darrel Jackson was credited as the coach of record for the postseason.^[8]

Haering was the defensive coordinator for the New York/New Jersey Knights of the upstart World League of American Football from 1991 to 1992.^[1] He served as the head coach for the AFL's Cincinnati Rockers in 1993.^[4] Haering then spent three years as a coach for the Atlanta Falcons; he was the team's linebackers coach in 1994, the defensive coordinator in 1995, and the linebackers coach again in 1996.^[1]

Haering was a college scout for the Buffalo Bills from 1997 to 2008.^[2] Beginning in 2009, he served several years as an assistant linebackers coach at SMU.^[2]

Haering was inducted into the Western Chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 2010.^[2] As of 2017, he was retired and living in Atlanta.^[9] He died in early 2022.^[10]